Weekend Wrap Is Back

It has been awhile since I did a weekend wrap, so for those who look forward to some of my insight in to what I thought of the weekend of sport here is a new instalment.

Australia Wrap Up Series 

Australia have humiliated the Indian cricket side and secured the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the 3rd test.  Australia only need 7 sessions of cricket to win the test match by an innings and 39 runs and at no stage did India look like they were ever going to really make a contest of the match.

Warner was a deserved man of the match after what was a game breaking innings.  After being dismissed cheaply on day one India must have thought that Australia would crumble just the same.  India was right in that only they didn't count on the opening pair putting on 200 runs before the collapse began.  What is of concern for Austraia though is how often it loses quick wickets and it's middle order fails to capitalise on good partnerships.  I will reinforce my campaign for Haddin to be replaced after he failed yet again with the bat.  Whilst Australia is doing well it is the best time to bring in a new keeper.

As for India, they have a lot of problems to address and hopefully they will wait until this tour is over before they click on what the need to do.  First change I would be making is with the captain.  Dhoni is out of form with the bat, has no energy on the field and generally captains as if he doesn't care what happens.  His keeping is looking lethargic and sub standard and does not seem to have any notion of what it takes to motivate his team that is lacking on self belief and confidence.  But instead I can see India finding something wrong with something outside their team, complain about that and forget to fix what the real problem is.

A very happy Berisha after scoring his 10th goal and the winner

Roar Escape Trick
Brisbane Roar showed again that they are the extra time specialists and won a with two goals in injury time.  All the talk though is of the actions which took place after the game and I will wait until I have seen clear footage of all events before making my judgement.  So far though what I am noticing is that all the attention and footage is being focused on Berisha with little attention being paid to every other player that was involved.  Obviously there is more to the story when a player carries on like this and it will be interesting to see how it all pans out.  My guess is that the Sydney media will focus more on the Roar players than on any of the Sydney players.

Tomic Wins Kooyong Classic

Congratulations to Bernard Tomic on his first victory in senior tennis after defeating American, Mardy Fish, in 3 sets to take out the Kooyong Classic.  At only 19 Tomic has a long career ahead of him and is going into the Australian Open in good form.  But the media needs to realise that if Tomic wins the open it would be an upset in world tennis.  He has the potential and should progress well, but the media just needs to let him play and not add any more pressure to him with their typical expectation that they love heaping on every Australian who plays in the Australian Open.

Cricket In Winter

It has surfaced in the media that Cricket Australia has discussed playing the Sheffield Shield in winter to help capitalise on the potential of the Big bash League.  Lets just hope that it is just all talk and no serious thought has come to it.  Yes the BBL is doing well but Cricket Australia needs to be careful how they manage this competition.  It is bad enough that they are already thinking of expanding a competition that hs only jsut begun.  Don't destroy the main game for the sake of money as well.  If the Shield is moved to winter, none of Australia's cricketers will be playing 4 day cricket on our main grounds.  How are our young cricketers ever goig to know how to bowl on these pitches if they never get to play on them in anything but a twenty/20 game.  It would make more sense to play the twenty/20 in winter and play those games on regional fields.  Let's hope that they wait a few seasons before starting to make dramatic changes.


On another note I would like to point out the stupidity of Cricket Australia and their scheduling of Test matches.  Firstly the Sydney Test was played from the 3rd of January, Tuesday, which meant that anyone who has to work did not get an opportunity to watch nay of this test.  And then with the 4th test in Adelaide will also start on a Tuesday and the Australia Day holiday being the only day that there will be any cricket that can e viewed by those that work.  I am not counting Sunday as due to recent history I cannot see India making this test go 5 days.  Does Cricket Australia realise that if you want a good crowd and good viewing numbers you need for the majority of people to being able to watch.